Ha Ha !!  Good stuff guys 

Nah, I dont envy them at all !  I much prefer to try and do the work myself, not always with success tho. 

Ok, so thinking I had sorted the play on the top tube pivot it turns out that its still there after rechecking post ride !! 

The videos below show the play after removing the shims and back to square one.  The second vid sows that it's the bearings that are moving in the linkage.  So after playing around I have substituted one of the existing spacers for the shims to create a thinner spacer.  This has allowed the bolt to pull the bearings back into their housing and keep them there !

Again I have pushed and pulled on the linkage and bolts and it seems to have worked, I have also used some Loctite 641 on the bearing as an added precaution.

Hopefully this now has sorted the problem but will check again after its been out for spin !

Ok, so something has been nagging me since I posted a photo a while ago........

What could be better than installing one crown race ?

Two of course !!!!!!!


Before :



After :




Please keep the mocking and abuse to a minimum.   


(In my defence the forks came new unused off a showroom bike,  the crown race was black and matched the steerer so I assumed incorrectly that it was part of the fork.  So on went another crown race to get them installed quickly !  After originally posting the before photo it bothered me that the forks didn't sit flush in the frame so in the process of swapping out the lower headset I had a small epiphany and face palm moment)

For my penance I am about to head out and go for a ride on a beautiful sunny morning.

Sussed.

Quote from: carbonazza on July 10, 2015, 01:29:26 AM
I had a hard time removing the Eggbeater plastic caps too.
And replaced them with these Ti ones:
http://m.ebay.com/itm/251325275052?_mwBanner=1

My experience with BB ceramic bearings so far:

They seem to be harder to spin initially. And need some break in.
I didn't notice any real difference with the steel, and stainless steel bearings I tried before.
But we'll see if they resist better the wet/mud starting in October.

Love the end caps ! I did have a look at some but as the service kit came with plastic ones I went with those.  I had to use a blow torch to heat up the flat blade screwdriver to create a new slot in the end cap to get it off    !!

In the future tho I don't think I will buy the service kit as the bushings and seals were in perfect condition, so I will just buy the bearings and some blingy caps !

Quote from: Vipassana on July 09, 2015, 05:44:52 PM
Great write-up.  So much good information!  I can't believe how bad your bearings were!  Living in a wetter location seems rough on bike bearings.  What is the advantage to the Ceramic BB30 kit over standard?  Mine are due for an upgrade.

The rear suspension odyssey is information I will certainly be passing on to my riding partner with the IP-036.

Im sure my religious washing of the bike after every ride was probably a big factor with the bearings.  Something I don't do any more  .  The bike did see a lot of rain in its first few weeks and a lot of mud Autumn onwards.  I guess with Ceramics and Stainless there is less rustable material.  I doubt whether the high prices of ceramic bearings is justifiable, I just saw a bargain on eBay and went with it.  Long term I reckon I will be buying cheaper bearings and replacing them often !

A friend at the LBS is thinking of building up at 27.5 HT and wanted to try out the XX1 so I lent him my rig and he gave me one of the hire bikes to try out, a mid range 29er Scott Spark.  After the ride he was impressed with the bike and the XX1 and he will probably go with  1x11 set up !  He did however point out a few things wrong with my bike.  Loose headset, rear brake judder and the rear frame had a lot of play in it !  I was aware of the brake problem as the rear rotor is slightly warped and needs replacing.  I hadn't noticed the headset had a slight amount of play in it but that was a quick fix.


Rear frame triangle !!  So after close inspection there was a lot of lateral movement in the rear frame.  By a lot I mean about 2-3mm in the Top tube pivot and slight movement in the seat stay to linkage pivot. I checked the torque on all the bolts and all seemed in order. (I did snap a bolt head whilst re-torquing the seatstay to suspension linkage,  pay attention to torque settings ! LOL    !!)

With the reoccurring theme of trashed bearings I decided to strip down the suspension linkage and chainstay/seatstay pivots and check them out.




Before I built up the IP-036 whilst waiting for parts I stripped the frame, greased the bearings  and re-torqued all the pivot points to make sure they would last.  This seems to have worked as all parts were in near perfect order.  Some of the black paint had worn away from the bolts and spacers but nothing to worry about.  The only wear I could see was on the spacers and on the non-drive side to the Top tube pivot point. This is probably accounting for the lateral play.



Edit:  The aluminium is worn, there is a slight 'dishing' to the face of the pivot housing !




The only bearing of slight concern was in the seatstay/chainstay pivot.  Basically this bearing sits in a recess within the chainstay and the recess was filled with dirt/grime so if you ride in the wet/wash regularly the bearing will always sit in gunk !  The bearing moves freely but is starting to discolour.  The amount of movement that this bearing goes through I doubt I would ever notice if it was seized so I don't suggest everyone goes tearing it out to give it a good clean as it's a real ball ache to get back together !!


I took this foto after I had cleaned most of the crap out and decided to mention it on here !






So happy with everything working as it should I addressed the lateral play with some shims.  I added one 8 x 14 x 0.3 shim in the seatstay to suspension linkage on the drive side.  Then ended up with six 12 x 18 x 0.3 shims to the Top tube pivot point (Three on each side sitting between the bearing face and existing spacer) 

Picture of shims and existing washers/spacers.





Without the back wheel on and rear shock attached I pushed, pulled and twisted the frame as much as I dared looking for movement.  There is now almost no play in all pivot points , I doubt whether all play in this linkage could be removed completely. 

For reference the bearings in the:

Seatstay to chainstay (x2) were  698RS.
Seatstay to Suspension Linkage (x2) were 698RS
Top Tube Pivot (x2) were 6901RS

I didn't remove the BB pivot as when all the other component were off it cycled freely with no play. (And I couldn't be bothered removing the cranks, rear brake and derailleur with cabling ! ) I suspect the bearings there is also 6901RS !

Updates:

As my bike is coming up for its first birthday I thought I would give you all some updates !

Mileage wise I reckon I am coming up for about 1200 miles and still going strong.  Over the past couple of months I have replaced a few consumables:

BB30: Has been swapped out for a new ceramic one.  I had noticed that the BB30 was getting very worn on one side and the cranks weren't spinning freely.  Inspecting the old one after installation it was in a bad way, a rusty crunchy mess !  I got the new SRAM Ceramic very cheap off E-bay and hope it lasts a bit longer !




Headset Bottom Assembly: After retrieving the bike from the shed from a few weeks of storage over Xmas I found that the steering had seized.  A quick twist of the bars freed up the steering but it wasn't as smooth as it once had been.  While dis-assembling, the lower bearing fell apart in my hands so it was replaced !  The old bearing was a Cane Creek 40 series, It was replaced with the more expensive 110 series.  The upper assembly was in good condition so was just cleaned, re-greased and re-installed.


Old.


New.



Pedals: I decided to service the Crank-Bros Eggbeater 2's. which were also not spinning freely. I purchased the Service kit which comes with new Nyloc nuts, bushings, screw caps, seals and bearings.  After stripping down both pedals it was apparent that both bearings had seized.  It's a nice straightforward job to strip and rebuild the pedals.  The hardest part was removing the plastic screw caps which chew up very easily !




Rear Shock:  I had noticed the rear shock (FOX CTD Remote) was not returning to its Descend mode properly, as If there wasn't enough force on the spring mechanism.  At first I thought it may be the remote cable stopping the shock returning to its correct position but the problem remained without cable attached.  I could turn the barrel on the shock to its correct position manually but it would not 'spring' round.  After a brief email exchange with MOJO who deal with FOX UK I sent it off to them to look at.  I posted the shock on Thursday and had it returned the following Tuesday. MOJO had done a full service and fixed whatever the problem was under warranty with no questions asked.  I suspect this may be common problem as no proof of purchase was required ! I was expecting a bit of hassle as I bought my shock from the US !  Either way, great customer service !

Lets face it Sitar, all we want to see is the wheel !!!! ............

Enter

^^^^^^ Essential! ☺ ^^^^^^^

On phone at the moment but do check your Xx1 configuration.  You have BB30 cranks listed but GXP bottom bracket !

I was on some new trails yesterday and the XX1 gripshift really made a difference ! Lots of blind corners into technical
Uphill sections at speed, jumping from one end of the cassette to the other quickly saved me from a few stalls ! (I still had plenty of spills tho and the 36 took a battering as did the carbon cranks, I will update my build thread soon with details ! )

As CD suggests,  if budget allows consider matching suspension and remote !

Regarding the headset, I Have just replaced my Cane Creek 40 series lower assembly after only 5 months. Steering became stiff and after further inspection the lower bearing disintegrated in my hands once I had removed the forks ! My rig has been through lots of bad weather and rigorous cleaning but I would've expected more life from it ! I would go with the vendor supplied NECO as it can't be any worse, I replaced mine with the stainless Cane Creek but obviously can't comment on longevity yet!

I went with Formula brakes and haven't had to touch them since install. Happy with that. I have only heard good things about the top end Shimano too so I guess it would come down to price, looks etc !

Xx1 is the way forward ...

Rutland, UK.   

You will have plenty of options in the Lakes to keep you occupied pal !  Hopefully you are 'near' Blackpool and not in it !

Bikes are fine on the train, on busy routes you may need to book but you should be OK in that area.  If you can hire a car and drive I would probably take that option as trails in the Lakes can be remote !

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/cyclists.aspx

I tend to do more fell walking in the Lakes rather than MTB but last time I was there I did 'The North Face' trail setting off from Grizedale.  Fantastic route, hard rocky uphill start but then lots of scenery, boardwalks, mud, gravel and forest !  Trail details can be found on this link -

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/visit.